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Tyrese Calls The Rock Selfish as Fast & Furious Feud Intensifies

More proverbial shots were fired in the Fast and Furious Spin-Off feud between Tyrese Gibson and Dwayne Johnson today, with Tyrese Gibson revealing that he thinks The Rock is being “selfish,” because this spin-off was moved forward while Universal pushed the Fast & Furious 9 release date by a full year to 2020, to make room for the spin-off. Here’s what Tyrese Gibson had to say, clarifying that he’s not mad The Rock actually got a spin-off, but because it caused the Fast & Furious 9 release date to be pushed.

“I don’t know what they’re doing. Everybody’s coming at me, like I’m hating on Dwayne for his spin-off. I’m not. I just wish he was releasing it at a different time. It’s not a conflict, but Fast & Furious is like a holiday. Fast & Furious family, the fans, the tribe, the people who have been rocking with us for 16 years… you know, pushing our release date back, it’s only happened one time in the history of Fast & Furious, when we lost our brother Paul Walker. So, what’s the reason we’re pushing the release date back now? I’ve just got a problem with Dwayne… it appears that he’s being selfish. It appears that he’s so focused on furthering his own self interests that he’s making decisions from the seat that he’s sitting in. Fast & the Furious 9 isn’t coming out until 2020. It’s f—d up.”

The currently untitled Fast & Furious Spin-Off was announced in April, not long after the eighth franchise installment, The Fate of the Furious hit theaters, which will bring together Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw, played by Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham. This feud turned public last month, when Tyrese posting a public message on one of Dwayne Johnson’s Instagram posts, where it was speculated that he was signing his contract for this spin-off. Tyrese said that he only went public because The Rock apparently wasn’t responding to Tyrese’s text messages.

Last week, it was made official, with the Fast and Furious spin-off release date set for July 26, 2019, shortly after the studio pushed Fast & Furious 9 by a year. Dwayne Johnson never publicly responded to any of Tyrese Gibson’s messages, but he did release a video of him working out a few days ago, which was accompanied by a shout-out to all of the “big dogs” like him working hard even on the weekends, but the video itself seemed to be a subtle jab at Tyrese, where he states that, “Big dogs eat, little crying puppies stay on the porch.” He also released a brief teaser for the spin-off, which is only comprised of a few brief scenes from The Fate of the Furious, which was accompanied by the following message, where he seems to call out both Vin Diesel and Tyrese Gibson, with the hashtag #CandyAssesNeedNotApply.

“Daddy’s gotta go back to work: Hobbs. Pumped to expand and build out the Fast & Furious universe in a cool, exciting way with our @sevenbucksprod, writer/producer Chris Morgan, producer Hiram Garcia and lead producer and my bigger twin, Neil Moritz. Thank you Universal Studios for being tremendous partners who see the big picture and for coming to us years ago with this spinoff idea. Huge shout to my brother, Jason Statham for the trust and wanting to create and deliver something fresh and bad ass for the fans. I have a tremendous amount of respect for this franchise that I’ve enjoyed droppin’ blood and sweat in over the years and my vision is to create greater opportunities for not only my fellow FF cast mates, but for other amazing actors as well who want to be a part of something new and cool. I want to use my spinoff platform to create new characters that fans will ultimately love to have fun with in multiple chapters and platforms. Film, TV, Digital, Virtual Reality etc.. the more opportunities we can create the better for the fans. Smart business. Let’s have some FUN and to quote, Hobbs the boss, if you don’t like it, we’re happy to beat that ass like a Cherokee drum. #HOBBS #SevenBucksProds #NewOpportunities #CandyAssesNeedNotApply July 2019.”

When the teaser was released on Monday, Vin Diesel also responded to the spin-off, albeit in a much more diplomatic fashion, stating that it would be “unfair to say it’s anyone’s fault.” He then went on to state that the franchise needs some “maintenance,” hinting that he asked for more time to figure out where the franchise goes from here, thanking Universal chairman Ron Meyer for giving him the time he needed. Vin Diesel was the subject of The Rock’s legendary rant while filming The Fate of the Furious. Take a look at the video of Tyrese Gibson’s interview where he calls The Rock “selfish,” courtesy of TMZ, along with the spin-off teaser, The Rock’s possibly subtle response to Tyrese and an old video from 2015 that Tyrese Gibson re-posted, where The Rock completely trashes Tyrese’s 2015 album Black Rose, that was said to be a joke.